Gun-control advocates prepare renewed push

12/14/12 4:02 PM EST

While the White House said it is not the day to talk about gun control, advocacy groups prepared to push the issue Friday after 20 children and six adults were shot dead at a Connecticut elementary school.

"Our elected leaders, in the coming hours, will issue the typical platitudes to those who have seen their loved ones gunned down in cold blood, telling them, 'Our thoughts and prayers with you.' Then, if the pattern holds, they will immediately retreat into silence and refuse to engage in any meaningful debate about America’s catastrophically flawed gun laws, which directly facilitate one gun massacre after the next," the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence said in a statement.

The Coalition was planning a rally in front of the White House at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. "We expect President Obama—as a man who has seen first-hand the devastation that gun violence inflicts on families and communities during his time as a volunteer in Chicago—to be a leader in this process and to speak out boldly and directly."

The Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence, meanwhile, urged supporters to sign a petition in support of tougher gun-control laws.

"Another day, another horrific shooting eating away at our collective peace of mind. This time at a school in Connecticut. We are better than this this," Dan Gross, president of The Brady Campaign, wrote in a statement. "What matters is not what we do after the sensational tragedies. It's what we do between them -- to make the voice of the American public heard."

Obama said Friday that it was time to take "meaningful action" to prevent similar tragedies, though he did not specify what action. His press secretary Jay Carney said it was too soon after the shooting to engage in policy debates about gun control.